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The ruins of Lust still smouldered. Columns blackened with soot jutted from the ground like broken ribs, and the air reeked of burnt incense and blood.
Gabriel stood in the middle of it, wings half-spread, halo cracked and flickering. His wings were ragged with dust and grime, a layer of dark charcoal dust clinging to them.
His hands shook at the thought of what he had to do. Again.
Another quick slice. Another betrayed cry.
Broken bodies and broken ties.
The Prime Soul that was standing across from Gabriel now was an incorporeal figure of ivory with a void for a face and prongs blooming from his head like a crown. His form was still stained with the crimson blood of the blue machine he had killed to escape. Truth and Love were larger now, curling around his feet like a pair of serpentine sentinels rather than the tiny little pets they had once been coiled around his arms.
Yet he stood vulnerable, tall figure bowed slightly to meet Gabriel's shorter height. The vulnerability he had worn when he first offered Gabriel peace, a thousand years and a thousand betrayals ago.
'So this is it,' Minos Prime murmured. 'The holy judge hast come to erase the sin thoust once adored.'
Gabriel’s hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. 'You mock me even now.'
'I do approve of thy honour,' Minos Prime said simply. 'Thoust came yourself. Thou didn’t send another to do your bidding.'
'I should have,' Gabriel snapped, though the fire in his voice faltered halfway through. He took a step forward, the ground crumbling beneath his foot. 'Heaven demands your end once more. You changed the souls you were given from suffering to joy.'
'Is Lust truly such a sin?' Minos Prime implored, as Love hissed and twisted around his feet. 'Did thoust feel that sin, angel, in all the years we hath spent warm in one another's arms?'
Gabriel stiffened. 'You are a sinner and a man,' he told the king. 'God does not approve of you and neither do I.'
Minos Prime rubbed Truth's glowing head, regarding Gabriel with something like pity. 'Thou still serves a vanished God,' he said. 'Still carries the sword of someone who hath never came back for thy faithful prayers.'
Gabriel growled. 'Faith is not about being seen.'
'Faith,' Minos Prime echoed, 'is a leash. Thou wears it akin to a crown.'
Gabriel hesitated, his wings flicking. 'You don't know what you're talking about, heretic.'
Then Minos Prime stepped closer, Truth and Love slithering at his heels. He was unarmed, hands open, palms still bleeding faintly from where the thorns of his husk had once cut him. The scent of blood was metallic and sweet.
'Thou looks afraid,' he whispered.
'I am not.' The angel's voice cracked.
'Thoust art afraid.' He whispered again, gentle this time. 'Because with thy defiance, there is still fire. And it is mine.'
The sword lowered a fraction. Gabriel’s throat worked soundlessly.
'Telleth mine ears,' Minos Prime said softly, the void of his face betraying no emotion. 'Doth the thought of it pain thou, loving what thoust were taught to destroy?'
Silence.
And Minos Prime leaned forward, his hand on Gabriel's blade. His voice dropped to a whisper, half a plea and half a dare.
'Kiss me, Son of God.'
For a heartbeat, existence itself held its breath.
Gabriel’s temper flared — and then guttered out. He let go the sword, its sharp edge slicing into Minos's palm as it fell. Neither the Prime Soul nor the angel flinched.
He reached out.
The gold of his helmet pressed against Minos Prime's cool palm, blood smearing over the metal as he held it there in the approximation of affection. His shoulders loosened, wings falling limp.
Gabriel said nothing, the crimson from Minos Prime's hand dripping down his chest. His body was still, metallic cheek lying against the soul's cool flesh.
And in that gap, the King of Lust looked at the Archangel as if he’d won a war.